Tuesday, September 29, 2009

It's Here!

It finally is real. The garage is nowhere near ready, but due to my friend Tom's extra-special efforts the press is there, sitting on the driveway


just outside the garage.















There was this little incident with a blown trailer tire, and that is a great reminder for all who might be tempted to do the same thing: Whatever you do, get a two axle trailer. The friendly U-Haul staff was trying to get us to accept a single axle trailer, when the one I had reserved the week before was not returned in time. Take my word for it, go two axle!
















And there she sat in a high speed curve on the Coquihala Highway:











The emergency service arranged by U-Haul was great. Hope Towing rules!

It took me three hours to get her off the trailer, man is she heavy!


And now there are a lot more decisions to be made. 
The press had been in storage for 39 years and while there is a fair bit of surface rust, the important rotating surfaces, bearing areas and joints all had lubricating oil remaining (even though quite oxidized and sticky with dust and dirt). So the first task is to take apart all the bearings, remove the connecting rods and evaluate wear, clean lubricate and re-assemble.
I'm getting the idea that it might be worth while to measure and document all the components while I have things appart as well. I have not been able to find a schematic of the machine assembly yet, so maybe I could make a contribution toward that.
Tonight I removed the ink fountain, I will prepare it for long term storage as I will not likely use it for my rather short run work. And I removed the ink rollers and scraped the ink disk. Looks like the press was stored with some ink left on the disk. There is discolouration where the surface deposits were. I applied some penetrating oil and we'll see in a few days if I can emery cloth polish the surface defects out. It looks like the ink disk sits in position just by it's own weight. I wonder if people remove the disk off of the press to clean the ink - rather than cleaning it in position. That might be less messy. We'll see how heavy the disk is, and if it is reasonable to lift it out. After dinner I worked for 2.5 hours applying penetrating oil to bearing areas and looking over the press.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Getting Closer - Just Another Week

So it's just another week until I get to lay my eyes on what I bought. The trailer rental has been arranged. A double axel open trailer that should be able to handle the weight. I have to get a bunch of tiedowns to secure the press on the trailer, and I have been thinking about the process of getting the press onto the trailer. Tomorrow I plan on looking at the trailers and measuring some details. I think I should prepare some blocking for the rear of the trailer for when the weight of the press lands on the deck. There is supposed to be a forklift available, but even with a forklift - or especially with a forklift - there is only so much reach. The trailer is 12 feet long and has boards and rail around the front and sides. So the only way to get the press to the center is to drop it on the back and push-slide it forward. For that the back better be supported well.
More after the visit to the trailer place...